1
00:00:06,083 --> 00:00:09,087
I'm really, really, really
excited to be here.

2
00:00:09,087 --> 00:00:10,952
I kind of want to tell you

3
00:00:10,952 --> 00:00:13,745
a little bit more of the -
I don't want to say basics -

4
00:00:13,745 --> 00:00:16,961
because we really don't know
anything about my syndrome.

5
00:00:16,961 --> 00:00:19,637
I was born with this very rare syndrome,

6
00:00:19,637 --> 00:00:24,477
that only two other people in the world
including myself, that we know of, have.

7
00:00:24,487 --> 00:00:28,325
Basically what this syndrome causes,
is that I cannot gain weight.

8
00:00:28,325 --> 00:00:31,380
Yes, it does sound as good as it is.

9
00:00:31,380 --> 00:00:33,930
(Laughter)

10
00:00:33,930 --> 00:00:37,436
I could eat absolutely
whatever I want, whenever I want

11
00:00:37,436 --> 00:00:40,376
and I won't really gain any weight.

12
00:00:40,376 --> 00:00:42,796
I'm going to be 25 in March,

13
00:00:42,796 --> 00:00:46,981
and I've never weighed over
about 64 pounds in my entire life.

14
00:00:46,981 --> 00:00:49,740
When I was in college, I hid -

15
00:00:49,740 --> 00:00:52,851
well, I didn't 'hide' it,
everyone knew it was there -

16
00:00:52,851 --> 00:00:58,178
but it was a giant tub
of Twinkies, donuts, chips, Skittles,

17
00:00:58,178 --> 00:01:01,212
and my roommate would say,
"I could hear you at 12:30 am,

18
00:01:01,212 --> 00:01:03,748
reaching under your bed to get food."

19
00:01:03,748 --> 00:01:08,227
But I'm like, "You know what?
It's alright, I can do these things!"

20
00:01:08,227 --> 00:01:11,237
Because there are benefits
to this syndrome.

21
00:01:11,237 --> 00:01:14,143
There are benefits
to not being able to gain weight.

22
00:01:14,143 --> 00:01:16,807
There are benefits
to being visually impaired.

23
00:01:16,807 --> 00:01:19,952
There are benefits
to being kind of really small.

24
00:01:21,212 --> 00:01:22,507
A lot of people think,

25
00:01:22,507 --> 00:01:25,767
"Lizzie, how in the world
are you saying there are benefits

26
00:01:25,767 --> 00:01:28,058
when you can only see
out of one eye?"

27
00:01:28,058 --> 00:01:30,781
Well, let me tell you
what the benefits are

28
00:01:30,781 --> 00:01:34,013
because they are great.

29
00:01:34,013 --> 00:01:40,184
I wear contacts--conTACT.
Half-off conTACTS.

30
00:01:40,184 --> 00:01:42,015
(Laughter)

31
00:01:42,015 --> 00:01:46,837
When I wear my reading glasses:
half-off prescription.

32
00:01:46,837 --> 00:01:51,881
If somebody is annoying me,
being rude:

33
00:01:51,881 --> 00:01:53,325
Stand on my right side.

34
00:01:53,325 --> 00:01:54,779
(Laughter)

35
00:01:54,779 --> 00:01:58,567
It's like you're not even there.
I don't even know you're standing there.

36
00:01:58,567 --> 00:02:01,763
Right now, if I stand like this,
I have no clue

37
00:02:01,763 --> 00:02:04,473
that there's this whole side of the room.

38
00:02:05,613 --> 00:02:12,206
Also, being small,
I am very willing to volunteer myself

39
00:02:12,206 --> 00:02:18,668
to go to Weight Watchers
or to some gym, and say,

40
00:02:19,458 --> 00:02:23,347
"Hi, I'm Lizzie.
I will be your poster child.

41
00:02:24,589 --> 00:02:28,529
Put my face on whatever
you need, and I will say,

42
00:02:28,529 --> 00:02:31,689
'Hi! I used this program.
Look how well it worked.'"

43
00:02:31,689 --> 00:02:35,230
(Laughter)

44
00:02:35,230 --> 00:02:38,774
Even though there are amazing things
that have come from this syndrome,

45
00:02:38,774 --> 00:02:44,100
there are also things that have been
very, very difficult, as you can imagine.

46
00:02:44,100 --> 00:02:49,849
Growing up, I was raised 150% normally.

47
00:02:49,849 --> 00:02:52,618
I was my parents' first child.

48
00:02:52,618 --> 00:02:56,055
And when I was born,
the doctors told my mom,

49
00:02:56,055 --> 00:02:59,781
"Your daughter has no
amniotic fluid around her.

50
00:02:59,781 --> 00:03:02,017
At all."

51
00:03:02,017 --> 00:03:05,841
So when I was born, it was a miracle
that I came out screaming.

52
00:03:05,841 --> 00:03:07,745
The doctors told my parents,

53
00:03:07,745 --> 00:03:11,143
"We just want to warn you:
Expect your daughter to never be able

54
00:03:11,143 --> 00:03:16,967
to talk, walk, crawl, think,
or do anything by herself."

55
00:03:16,967 --> 00:03:22,980
Now, as first-time parents,
you would think that my parents would say,

56
00:03:22,931 --> 00:03:28,739
"Oh no. Why?
Why are we getting our first child

57
00:03:28,739 --> 00:03:31,829
with all these unknown problems?"

58
00:03:31,829 --> 00:03:34,385
But that's not what they did.

59
00:03:34,385 --> 00:03:36,443
The first thing they told the doctor was,

60
00:03:36,443 --> 00:03:39,313
"We want to see her,
and we are going to take her home

61
00:03:39,313 --> 00:03:43,299
and love her, and raise her
to the best of our abilities."

62
00:03:43,299 --> 00:03:45,595
And that's what they did.

63
00:03:45,595 --> 00:03:49,905
I credit pretty much everything
that I've done in my life to my parents.

64
00:03:49,905 --> 00:03:53,451
My dad is here with me today,
and my mom is at home watching.

65
00:03:53,451 --> 00:03:56,132
Hi mom! 
(Laughter)

66
00:03:56,132 --> 00:03:58,628
She's recovering from surgery.

67
00:03:58,628 --> 00:04:01,495
She has been the glue
that's held our family together,

68
00:04:01,495 --> 00:04:05,902
and she's given me the strength
to see that she's going through so much,

69
00:04:05,902 --> 00:04:10,456
but she has this fighting spirit
that she's instilled in me,

70
00:04:10,456 --> 00:04:15,516
so that I have proudly been able
to stand in front of people and say,

71
00:04:15,516 --> 00:04:19,742
"You know what?
I've had a really difficult life.

72
00:04:19,742 --> 00:04:21,753
But that's okay."

73
00:04:21,753 --> 00:04:26,227
That's okay. Things have been scary,
things have been tough.

74
00:04:26,227 --> 00:04:27,481
One of the biggest things

75
00:04:27,481 --> 00:04:29,169
that I had to deal with growing up

76
00:04:29,169 --> 00:04:30,740
was something I'm pretty sure

77
00:04:30,740 --> 00:04:33,535
every single one of us in this room
has dealt with before.

78
00:04:33,535 --> 00:04:35,640
Can you guess what that is?

79
00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:37,956
It starts with a 'B'.
Can you guys guess it?

80
00:04:37,956 --> 00:04:39,742
Audience: Boys!
Lizzie: Boys?

81
00:04:39,742 --> 00:04:41,945
(Laughter)

82
00:04:41,945 --> 00:04:43,288
Bullying!

83
00:04:43,288 --> 00:04:45,791
(Laughter)

84
00:04:45,791 --> 00:04:47,773
I know what you all are thinking.

85
00:04:47,773 --> 00:04:49,742
(Laughter)

86
00:04:49,742 --> 00:04:52,882
Why can't I sit here with them?
(Laughter)

87
00:04:52,882 --> 00:04:56,823
I had to deal with bullying a lot,
but as I said, I was raised very normally,

88
00:04:56,823 --> 00:04:58,786
so when I started kindergarten,

89
00:04:58,786 --> 00:05:01,824
I had absolutely no idea
that I looked different.

90
00:05:01,824 --> 00:05:03,143
No clue.

91
00:05:03,143 --> 00:05:06,174
I couldn't see that I looked
different from other kids.

92
00:05:06,174 --> 00:05:10,065
I think of it as a big slap
of reality for a five year-old,

93
00:05:10,065 --> 00:05:13,860
because I went in to school the first day,
decked-out in Pocahontas gear.

94
00:05:13,860 --> 00:05:15,729
I was ready!

95
00:05:15,729 --> 00:05:17,338
(Laughter)

96
00:05:17,338 --> 00:05:18,688
I went in with my backpack

97
00:05:18,688 --> 00:05:21,817
that looked like a turtle shell
because it was bigger than me,

98
00:05:21,817 --> 00:05:25,496
and I walked up
to a little girl and smiled at her,

99
00:05:25,496 --> 00:05:27,831
and she looked up at me
like I was a monster,

100
00:05:27,831 --> 00:05:30,825
like I was the scariest thing
she had ever seen in her life.

101
00:05:30,825 --> 00:05:32,147
My first reaction was,

102
00:05:32,147 --> 00:05:34,086
"She is really rude.

103
00:05:34,086 --> 00:05:35,495
(Laughter)

104
00:05:35,495 --> 00:05:37,825
I am a fun kid,
and she's the one missing out.

105
00:05:37,825 --> 00:05:41,163
So I'll just go over here
and play with blocks. Or boys."

106
00:05:41,163 --> 00:05:44,227
(Laughter)

107
00:05:44,227 --> 00:05:45,941
(Lizzie laughs)

108
00:05:45,941 --> 00:05:49,216
I thought the day would get better,
and unfortunately, it didn't.

109
00:05:49,216 --> 00:05:52,571
The day got worse and worse.
A lot of people just wanted to have

110
00:05:52,571 --> 00:05:56,572
absolutely nothing to do with me,
and I couldn't understand why.

111
00:05:56,572 --> 00:06:00,618
Why? What did I do?
I didn't do anything to them!

112
00:06:00,618 --> 00:06:03,057
In my mind I was still a really cool kid.

113
00:06:03,057 --> 00:06:04,853
I had to go home and ask my parents,

114
00:06:04,853 --> 00:06:06,029
"What's wrong with me?

115
00:06:06,029 --> 00:06:08,247
What did I do? Why don't they like me?"

116
00:06:08,247 --> 00:06:09,649
They sat me down and said,

117
00:06:09,649 --> 00:06:12,031
"Lizzie, the only thing
different about you

118
00:06:12,031 --> 00:06:14,187
is that you're smaller
than the other kids.

119
00:06:14,187 --> 00:06:18,441
You have this syndrome,
but it's not going to define who you are."

120
00:06:18,441 --> 00:06:21,838
They said, 
"Go to school, pick your head up, smile,

121
00:06:21,838 --> 00:06:24,106
continue to be yourself,
and people will see

122
00:06:24,106 --> 00:06:25,814
that you're just like them."

123
00:06:25,814 --> 00:06:28,232
And so that's what I did.

124
00:06:28,232 --> 00:06:31,750
I want you to think, and ask yourself
this in your head, right now:

125
00:06:31,750 --> 00:06:33,892
What defines you?

126
00:06:33,892 --> 00:06:35,555
Who are you?

127
00:06:35,555 --> 00:06:39,076
Is it where you come from?
Is it your background? Is it your friends?

128
00:06:39,076 --> 00:06:40,397
What is it?

129
00:06:40,397 --> 00:06:43,052
What defines who you are as a person?

130
00:06:43,052 --> 00:06:47,869
It's taken me a very long time
to figure out what defines me.

131
00:06:47,869 --> 00:06:49,949
For so long I thought what defined me

132
00:06:49,949 --> 00:06:54,405
was my outer appearance.
I thought that my little tiny legs,

133
00:06:54,405 --> 00:06:57,760
and my little arms,
and my little face were ugly.

134
00:06:57,760 --> 00:06:59,519
I thought I was disgusting.

135
00:06:59,519 --> 00:07:03,288
I hated when I'd wake up in the morning
when I was going to middle school,

136
00:07:03,288 --> 00:07:06,449
and would be looking in the mirror
getting ready, and thinking,

137
00:07:06,449 --> 00:07:09,478
"Can I just scrub this syndrome off?

138
00:07:09,478 --> 00:07:13,993
It would make my life so much easier
if I could just scrub it off.

139
00:07:13,993 --> 00:07:17,085
I could look like other kids;
I wouldn't have to buy clothes

140
00:07:17,085 --> 00:07:20,754
that had Dora the Explorer on them.
I wouldn't have to buy stuff

141
00:07:20,754 --> 00:07:24,998
that was 'Bedazzled', when I was trying
to be like the cool kids."

142
00:07:24,998 --> 00:07:29,005
I would wish, and pray, and hope,
and do whatever I could

143
00:07:29,005 --> 00:07:31,910
so I would wake up
in the morning and be different,

144
00:07:31,910 --> 00:07:34,358
and I wouldn't have to deal
with these struggles.

145
00:07:34,358 --> 00:07:36,214
It's what I wanted every single day,

146
00:07:36,214 --> 00:07:39,491
and every single day I was disappointed.

147
00:07:39,491 --> 00:07:43,931
I have an amazing
support system around me,

148
00:07:43,931 --> 00:07:49,758
who never pity me, who are there
to pick me up if I'm sad,

149
00:07:49,758 --> 00:07:52,587
who are there to laugh with me
during the good times,

150
00:07:52,587 --> 00:07:57,935
and they taught me that,
even though I have this syndrome,

151
00:07:57,935 --> 00:08:03,070
even though things are hard,
I can't let that define me.

152
00:08:03,070 --> 00:08:08,909
My life was put into my hands,
just like your lives are put into yours.

153
00:08:08,909 --> 00:08:12,115
You are the person
in the front seat of your car.

154
00:08:12,115 --> 00:08:13,648
You are the one who decides

155
00:08:13,648 --> 00:08:17,811
whether your car goes down
a bad path, or a good path.

156
00:08:17,811 --> 00:08:22,277
You are the one
who decides what defines you.

157
00:08:22,277 --> 00:08:25,575
Now let me tell you:
it could be really hard to figure out

158
00:08:25,575 --> 00:08:28,342
what defines you,
because there were times

159
00:08:28,342 --> 00:08:30,792
when I'd get so annoyed
and frustrated, and say:

160
00:08:30,792 --> 00:08:33,383
"I don't care what defines me!"

161
00:08:33,383 --> 00:08:35,555
When I was in high school I found a video,

162
00:08:35,555 --> 00:08:37,927
unfortunately, that somebody posted of me,

163
00:08:37,927 --> 00:08:40,141
labeling me the world's ugliest woman.

164
00:08:40,141 --> 00:08:43,642
There were over four million views
to this video; eight seconds long,

165
00:08:43,642 --> 00:08:46,592
no sound, thousands
of comments; people saying,

166
00:08:46,592 --> 00:08:52,258
"Lizzie, please - please -
just do the world a favor,

167
00:08:52,258 --> 00:08:55,303
put a gun to your head,
and kill yourself."

168
00:08:57,193 --> 00:09:01,867
Think about that,
if people told you that,

169
00:09:01,867 --> 00:09:04,746
if strangers told you this.

170
00:09:04,746 --> 00:09:07,821
I cried my eyes out of course,
and I was ready to fight back

171
00:09:07,821 --> 00:09:10,263
and something
kind of clicked in my head,

172
00:09:10,263 --> 00:09:14,077
and I thought,
"I'm just going to leave it alone."

173
00:09:14,077 --> 00:09:18,933
I started realizing
that my life is in my hands.

174
00:09:18,933 --> 00:09:22,311
I could either choose
to make this really good,

175
00:09:22,311 --> 00:09:24,863
or I could choose
to make this really bad.

176
00:09:24,863 --> 00:09:27,037
I could be grateful,
and open my eyes

177
00:09:27,037 --> 00:09:29,979
and realize the things that I do have,

178
00:09:29,979 --> 00:09:33,737
and make those the things that define me.

179
00:09:33,737 --> 00:09:37,389
I can't see out of one eye,
but I can see out of the other.

180
00:09:37,389 --> 00:09:40,746
I might get sick a lot,
but I have really nice hair.

181
00:09:40,746 --> 00:09:42,293
(Laughter)

182
00:09:42,293 --> 00:09:43,592
(Audience) You do, you do!

183
00:09:43,592 --> 00:09:44,790
Thanks.

184
00:09:44,790 --> 00:09:47,395
You guys are like
the best little section right here.

185
00:09:47,395 --> 00:09:49,670
(Laughter)

186
00:09:49,670 --> 00:09:52,396
(Lizzie laughs)
You made me lose my train of thought!

187
00:09:52,396 --> 00:09:54,142
(Laughter)

188
00:09:54,142 --> 00:09:56,168
Okay... where was I?

189
00:09:56,168 --> 00:09:57,407
Audience: Your hair!

190
00:09:57,407 --> 00:10:01,160
Hair! Hair. Ok, ok, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

191
00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,859
So I could either choose
to be happy or I could choose

192
00:10:03,859 --> 00:10:07,240
to be upset with what I have
and still kind of complain about it,

193
00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:09,797
but then I started realizing:

194
00:10:09,797 --> 00:10:13,254
Am I going to let the people
who called me a monster define me?

195
00:10:13,254 --> 00:10:17,918
Am I going to let the people who said,
"Kill it with fire!" define me?

196
00:10:17,918 --> 00:10:23,481
No; I'm going to let my goals,
and my success, and my accomplishments

197
00:10:23,481 --> 00:10:27,949
be the things that define me -
Not my outer appearance,

198
00:10:27,949 --> 00:10:30,965
not the fact that I'm visually impaired,

199
00:10:30,965 --> 00:10:35,894
not the fact that I have this syndrome
that nobody knows what it is.

200
00:10:35,894 --> 00:10:38,582
So I told myself
I'm going to work my butt off

201
00:10:38,582 --> 00:10:41,233
and do whatever I could
to make myself better,

202
00:10:41,233 --> 00:10:46,914
because in my mind, the best way
that I could get back at all those people

203
00:10:46,914 --> 00:10:49,743
who made fun of me, who teased me,

204
00:10:49,743 --> 00:10:52,229
who called me ugly,
who called me a monster

205
00:10:52,229 --> 00:10:54,558
was to make myself better,
and to show them:

206
00:10:54,558 --> 00:10:56,474
You know what?

207
00:10:56,474 --> 00:10:58,090
Tell me those negative things,

208
00:10:58,090 --> 00:10:59,668
I'm going to turn them around,

209
00:10:59,668 --> 00:11:01,557
and I'm going to use them as a ladder

210
00:11:01,557 --> 00:11:03,576
to climb up to my goals.

211
00:11:03,576 --> 00:11:04,937
That's what I did.

212
00:11:04,937 --> 00:11:07,769
I told myself that I wanted
to be a motivational speaker,

213
00:11:07,769 --> 00:11:09,036
I wanted to write a book,

214
00:11:09,036 --> 00:11:12,342
graduate college, have my own family,
and have my own career.

215
00:11:13,002 --> 00:11:15,430
Eight years later,
I’m standing in front of you,

216
00:11:15,430 --> 00:11:19,074
still doing motivational speaking.

217
00:11:19,074 --> 00:11:21,307
First thing, I accomplished it.

218
00:11:21,307 --> 00:11:24,930
I wanted to write a book;
in a couple of weeks

219
00:11:24,930 --> 00:11:28,613
I will be submitting
the manuscript for my third book.

220
00:11:28,613 --> 00:11:34,232
(Applause)

221
00:11:34,232 --> 00:11:38,232
I wanted to graduate college,
and I just finished college.

222
00:11:38,232 --> 00:11:40,909
(Cheers and applause)

223
00:11:40,909 --> 00:11:44,526
I'm getting a degree
in Communication Studies

224
00:11:44,526 --> 00:11:47,117
from Texas State University in San Marcos,

225
00:11:47,117 --> 00:11:49,237
and I have a minor in English.

226
00:11:49,237 --> 00:11:52,558
I really, really tried to use
real-life experience

227
00:11:52,558 --> 00:11:57,511
while I was getting my degree,
and my professors were not having it.

228
00:11:57,981 --> 00:12:02,465
I wanted to have, lastly,
my own family and my own career.

229
00:12:02,465 --> 00:12:05,942
The family part is kind of down the line,
and my career part,

230
00:12:05,942 --> 00:12:09,801
I feel like I'm really doing well with it,
considering the fact that

231
00:12:09,801 --> 00:12:13,108
when I decided I wanted to be
a motivational speaker, I went home,

232
00:12:13,108 --> 00:12:16,287
I sat in front of my laptop,
went to Google, and typed in:

233
00:12:16,287 --> 00:12:18,309
"How to be a motivational speaker."

234
00:12:18,309 --> 00:12:19,177
(Laughter)

235
00:12:19,177 --> 00:12:20,777
I'm not even joking.

236
00:12:20,777 --> 00:12:24,019
I worked my butt off.
I used the people who were telling me

237
00:12:24,019 --> 00:12:27,368
that I couldn't do this
to motivate me.

238
00:12:27,368 --> 00:12:31,464
I used their negativity
to light my fire to keep going.

239
00:12:31,464 --> 00:12:35,407
Use that. Use that.
Use that negativity

240
00:12:35,407 --> 00:12:38,033
that you have in your life
to make yourself better,

241
00:12:38,033 --> 00:12:41,605
because I guarantee you -

242
00:12:41,605 --> 00:12:44,041
guarantee you -

243
00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:47,152
You will win.

244
00:12:47,152 --> 00:12:51,376
Now I want to end, with asking you again.

245
00:12:51,376 --> 00:12:56,300
I want you to leave here,
and ask yourself what defines you.

246
00:12:56,300 --> 00:12:58,198
But remember:

247
00:12:58,198 --> 00:12:59,871
Brave starts here.

248
00:13:01,035 --> 00:13:02,208
Thank you.

249
00:13:02,208 --> 00:13:08,718
(Applause)